Our guest blogger this week is Aaron Laughlin who is starting us off on a series about exploring summer camps. Aaron has worked in healthcare finance for over 30 years with 10 of those being a CFO. He is an Elder in the Community of Christ and a member of the Shawnee Drive congregation. Aaron serves on the Share, Inc., DBS, Camp MITIOG board. He has also been the chairman of the CAMP MITIOG council since 2015 which acts like the Financing/Fundraising committee for Camp MITIOG. Aaron is the President of the Camp Chihowa board and a member of the Camp Moja board. As you can see he is highly invested in making camps successful places where love and kindness shine. Today he gets to share about his experience with Camp MITIOG (Made in the Image of God) where he has helped for over twenty years. He started as a counselor and has became a leader in its ongoing success. Camp MITIOG For 51 years CAMP MITIOG (Made in the image of God) has provided camping experiences for children living with Spina Bifida. It's a small camp held at the Doniphan Conference & Retreat Center located in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Each year over a hundred volunteers come excited and ready to give ministry at a camp specially designed for children living with special needs aged 7-16. Most of the campers rely on wheel chairs for mobility and are not able to navigate a regular camp ground that most camping programs provide. Here they get the opportunity to live in the great outdoors and experience what camping is all about. Camp MITIOG (Made in the image of God) has two main purposes. 1. Providing a camping experience for children with special needs 2. Giving a life changing experience for young adults who provide one on one care to each camper. This requires giving emotional support and taking care of the campers physical needs. Most of the campers need 24 hour care throughout their lives. An added benefit of Camp MITIOG is that it provides a week of relief to the caregivers of the campers. The camp provides full medical support for the campers physical needs to ensure they are not at risk. Each camper is assigned a counselor that does everything the camper needs for the week. I often hear counselors say the opportunity to give back to someone has created a joy in their life that has changed their life direction. Most come back year after year to be a part of this amazing experience. In fact, I met my children’s mother at Camp MITIOG when we were both counselors in the late 1970’s. Camp MITIOG has a 97% camper return rate! If they are not returning than its most likely that they have graduated. Most of the campers go for all 10 years that they can. Parents gratefully share with us the amazing things their children say about camp. Comments like, "Camp is better than Christmas" or campers asking, "When can I go back" after only being home for one week are common statements that bring joy to my heart. Become a Counselor! We have had counselors come from all over the world. One year we had a camper attend from Alaska. The camper has now become a champion skier. This story sends chills through my soul because we were a part in helping this once vulnerable child into becoming a successful citizen of this world. It proves to me that all people have worth. The Camp MITIOG experience reflects that everyone has worth and it shines the light on the amazing person God created us to be. Camp MITIOG provides the camping experience for up to 57 campers each year. It takes about 5,000 volunteer hours to plan, fundraise, and operate the camp. If you know of a young adult 16 years old or older, that would like to be a counselor, please have them go to CampMITIOG.org and sign up to be a counselor. I guarantee they will not regret the experience. One amazing thing is Camp MITIOG is provided free of charge to the campers and is funded 100% by donations. Most of the campers would not be able to come to camp each year without the generosity of donors. One wonderful organization helping us provide this program is the Camps for Kids organization. They have provided over $20,000 each year in a matching funds grant. The way it works is for every dollar donated to Camp MITIOG through Camps for Kids, they will match each donation up to $1,500. Because of the generosity of donors we have been able to match 100% of this grant for the last 10 years. Thank you to all those who have supported Camp MITIOG! Depending upon the path of the current pandemic situation in the world, camp is currently scheduled to proceed July 19-24, 2020. This year we are open to having interested individuals tour the camp but must schedule an appointment. You can contact me at 816-454-2607 with any questions or interest you have in helping out with the camp or fundraising. I guarantee it will be rewarding! I am blessed every year in telling the story of Camp MITIOG and the response of generosity I see from people. The matching Camps for Kids grant in 2020 is open now and runs through July 31, 2020. If interested in helping us match the $22,500 please go to Camps for Kids and donate. “NOW” is the time to maximize the benefits of your donation. 1.) Please send all donations made payable to: Camps for Kids 2.) Mail the contributions to: Camp MITIOG C/O Camps for Kids 5960 Dearborn Suite 225 Mission, KS 66202 3.) Write in the Memo section of the check or money order, For Camp MITIOG. 4.) All contributions this year will receive a receipt from Camps for Kids designating which camp the donation was credited to. Thank you for your grateful consideration and God bless each one of you! If you are aware of any organizations or individuals who would like to sponsor Camp MITIOG in fundraising efforts, please let me know and I will send out our 501c3 letters and our professionally prepared brochures. I can be reached at 816-454-2607 or at Aaron@CampMITIOG.org for any other questions. I really appreciate Aaron writing about Camp MITIOG so we can be aware of the amazing ministry that happens there.
This week think about your own camp experience and share it with someone else. And if you feel able please donate to this awesome camp!
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Our guest blogger this week is one of our very own Jim Fairchild. Jim attends Community of Christ in Topeka. Jim has been a co creator of this blog as he has taken on the responsibility of managing our website and doing all of our social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He has learned a lot from this endeavor and is wanting to share some of that knowledge with you. So a big thanks for Jim being willing to share with us. Background Information I have been a life long member of the RLDS/Community of Christ faith community. I was very active as a youth and attended Graceland College (University). Although I was seeking a career in health services, I was unable to find a suitable career path without further professional education. I was encouraged by friends, who also attended Graceland, to utilize my social science credits, to seek employment with the Missouri Department of Social Services. I worked in Child Protective Services as a rural field supervisor for almost ten years. I continued to remain interested in a health services administration career and obtained an administrative position at a Kansas psychiatric hospital in Topeka, which would permit me to attend KU and obtain a master’s degree in health services administration. I remained very active in the church in Topeka and served in the office of Priest. After completing my professional training, I obtained employment as a healthcare administrator, working for several rural hospitals as a Chief Executive Officer. I spent the last fifteen years of my professional career as a healthcare administrator in the central part of the United States. While I had a successful career, my work took me far away from my faith community. Planning to return to Topeka upon retirement, I kept my membership with the Topeka congregation. A few years ago, I retired and moved back to eastern Kansas. I also decided that in retirement I would maximize my time and talents in volunteer service to the church. I currently serve in the office of Elder, and serve as the Congregation Financial Officer. My Invitational Ministry Plan Early 1960s church membership statistics show the success of evangelizing methods. Effective use of the developing technology, personal evangelism materials, and a strong determination to proselytize, are among the many factors that account for the steady membership increase. I am very concerned about the decline of Community of Christ membership which was shared by Steve Veazey in his “Time to Act” message to the church. (September 2017) In response to this “call to action” I looked for things that I could do as an individual, as well as, successful outreach methods that could easily be implemented in a local congregation. I have been always interested in Invitational Ministry, however my only experience was through proseltyzing “door-to-door” with tracts. Due to changes in cultural demographics and technology, this did not appear to be a viable option for Invitational Ministry. Why Virtual Ministry? I am familiar with D&C Section 155:7. But what does this scripture mean by “many techniques for proclaiming my word?” As Disciples, we are called to go places where we have never been, to do new things that we have never attempted and to be things we have never envisioned. I decided to search the Internet for information regarding successful church growth strategies. There were numerous church growth websites, classes and books on the topic. I searched YouTube for presentations (videos) about successful ideas that other churches had used for church growth. I found many (free) video presentations on YouTube about using electronic outreach, including Church Websites and Church Social Media accounts to promote Church Growth. I thought outreach through Electronic Media might be a good methodology for me to utilize for invitational ministry, Invite People to Christ. I was computer literate but knew nothing about church websites or social media. At the time, Community of Christ had very few resources on electronic outreach, however some Community of Christ Mission Centers were experimenting with this new technology, and sharing their information on line. (Community of Christ has since significantly increased it’s resources in this area and you will find a lot of this information on the Community of Christ YouTube page.) The Community of Christ Communications Department also provides free downloadable graphics which can be used for outreach. OK, it’s time to act! The Topeka Congregation had a free Weebly website which had been developed by a member, more than ten years ago. The website was still online, but no longer being managed, so I took responsibility for managing the Topeka Congregation website. The free Weebly software is limited and has ads. Based upon what I had learned, specific to church websites, I upgraded to the Weebly Pro website software and re-formatted the Topeka Congregation website. I am not a Social Media person, and prior to this project I did not have an account, and knew very little about Social Media. However my research had indicated that churches should use Social Media for outreach, as it is a very effective outreach tool. So I learned (YouTube) about church Social Media. I established Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts for Topeka Community of Christ. Social Media is an ever changing technology. The learning is ongoing and systematic. At the same time, Seventy Craig Hidy was developing a church group in Emporia, Kansas. This group is a “House Church” and doesn’t have a church building. Members of this group communicate by email concerning group activities. This group is also a Community of Christ Latter-day Seekers Ministry (Emporia Ministry). A website would be a good method to communicate the ministry’s presence in east-central Kansas for seekers. Craig also thought a Blog might be beneficial for church outreach. I volunteered to set up and manage a website (website fees paid by MMC) for the Emporia Ministry, a Blog for Craig on the website, and Social Media accounts for the Emporia Group. Aware of my success with Electronic Media Outreach for the Topeka Congregation and Emporia Ministry; Midlands Mission Center leadership asked me to do a presentation at the Fall 2018 Mission Learn. The Mission Learn presentation was titled: “Seize the 167!” An invaluable resource to my “Virtual Invitational Ministry” has been from a Canadian Company “Pro Church Tools” which sells software and services to churches for electronic and social media outreach. The company provides weekly videos on YouTube regarding the utilization of this ministry. This is a link to their “Seize the 167!” video for churches that inspired me to embrace this technology. Progress, so far. For the past two years I have been managing “Virtual Invitational Ministry” for one congregation (Topeka KS) and one group ministry (Emporia KS). How has that worked? As a congregation CFO, I am happy to report, that the Topeka Congregation has reduced their outreach expenditures (primarily for print ads) from $1100 per year to $150 per year for Weebly Pro Software. In our previous efforts utilizing print media ads (yellow pages and newspaper) we had no measurable results for our expenses. We had not initiated any of the traditional prostelizing methods, door-to-door tracting, missionary home visits and special missionary preaching services for many years. Using Virtual Invitational Ministry, the Topeka Congregation Website averages over 1,000 visits per month and is open and working to extending our invitation to Christ, 24 hours per day every day of the year. The congregation also has daily posts to FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. Website analytics indicate, other than our landing page, most visitors go to our “Activities” page to see how we are implementing the Mission of Christ in our community. I invite you to take a look at the Topeka Website and see what you think. The Topeka Social Media accounts have a wide range of viewers, and I am focusing on improving engagement. I use these accounts to promote Community of Christ Mission Initiatives, Enduring Principles and Inviting People to join with us in Worship and Community. Our Twitter account averages about 8,000 views per month, with a high of 12,000 views per month. The Midlands Mission Center pays for the Weebly Pro subscription for the Emporia Ministry of $150 per year. Using Virtual Invitational Ministry, the Emporia Ministry Website averages over 1,000 visits per month and is open and working to extending our invitation to Christ, 24 hours per day every day of the year. The ministry also has daily posts to FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. Website analytics indicate, other than our landing page, most visitors go to this BLOG. I invite you to take a look at the Emporia Ministry website and see what you think. The Emporia Social Media accounts have a wide range of viewers, and I am focusing on improving engagement. I use these accounts to promote this Blog, the Emporia Latter-day Seeker Ministry and Inviting people to join with us in Worship and Community. Our Twitter account averages about 6,500 views per month. What can you do to help? In a simple word “Share” and "Comment" on the Blog and Social Media Posts. Most of you probably have social media accounts. User data shows that FaceBook has over Two Billion active users per month, Instagram has over One Billion active users per month and Twitter approximately six-hundred thousand active users per month. This is easy for you to do. For this Blog you will find a share link for FaceBook and Twitter at the bottom of each blog post. If you click share, you are inviting members of you social media network to visit the blog post. You will also find links to the Emporia Ministry Social Media Accounts A big thanks to Jim for sharing his knowledge and information with us.
This week please post something about your church online, share one of our posts, or comment on one of our blogs. Our guest blogger this week is Mellissa Ann Myers. She is 48 years old and has been sober for almost 7 years. Mellissa works as a Case Manager for Valeo Behavioral Healthcare; the adult mental health center for Shawnee County. She loves the social work aspect of this job and being able to help clients. Mellissa is also a classic movie buff and lives in Topeka, Kansas with her husband Justin. We are so thankful to have Mellissa share her heart and story with us today about how she found God and how it changed her life. On January 9th 2013, I was done; done with life. I was ready to end it all. I was strung out on meth and drinking every day. I had lost all hope and had nowhere to turn. I was alone, jobless and homeless. The only way I earned any money was by selling the drug I was using, but my habit always came first so I didn’t make a lot of money. What little money I did make, I used to buy liquor so I could come down, sleep for a few hours and get back to hustling. On this particular night I was crashing in a trap house and it was disgusting, roach infested and filthy!! But, it was a roof over my head and it was so cold outside so it was better than that. I had enough dope for a few days, I was high but decided I needed to be higher because my surroundings made me sick. The roaches were everywhere and when I went to pull out my gear to make up a shot, roaches started crawling out of my bag. It was horrible. I started to cry. I hated myself for where I was at and all I wanted to do was stay numb. Everything hurt, my body was ravaged by meth and alcohol and I was just an empty shell of the person I used to be. The tears came again and they wouldn’t stop. I became angry because the tears were clouding my eyes and I couldn’t mix my shot. I told myself I was worthless and to stop being a baby and I immediately stopped crying. I hadn’t cried for a very long time so it was very uncomfortable. As I sat there getting ready to stick a needle in my arm, I heard a voice say, “I’m here.” Most people know meth and lack of sleep cause delusions and that is what I thought it was; it wasn’t. Those two words gave me what I needed to stop what I was doing, get on my knees and cry out to God for help. “God if that was you please hear my cry, I don’t want to die and I can’t live like this anymore please free me from this hell I am in.” At that moment my phone rang and it was a woman I had met at an AA meeting. (A meeting I went to only to get a cup of coffee and out of the cold.) Immediately this woman told me that God put me on her heart and so she decided to call to see if I was ok. I started crying and for the first time in a long time I was able to be honest and say, “No, I am not ok, I need help and I’m ready.” This amazing woman came to me and took me out of that hell hole and helped me find my way. When I told her about hearing what I heard she let me know that, this is how God works. At that moment I knew I had no other choice but to surrender my life and will to God if I wanted to live. I have not faltered from His path and have remained sober for the last 6 years; almost seven. This is the longest I have ever been sober since the age of 14. God blesses me everyday with another day of sobriety and I am so grateful!!!! His blessings are endless!!! Because of God I am a better person; I live my life for Him because He gave so much for me. This is only part of my story, but for me the most important part. This is what led me to believe in God again and how I got to where I am today! Mellissa your vulnerability is incredible! Thank you for sharing your inspiring story with us. Our faiths become stronger when we are able to hear stories like yours.
This week listen to that still small voice leading you. Is there someone who needs your support right now? Go an be that support! |
Please Note The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Community of Christ. We believe individuals should be allowed to have their own opinions and be at different places in their faith journey.
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Emporia Ministry
c/o Midlands Mission Center 7615 North Platte Purchase Drive Kansas City, Missouri 64118 Phone: (816) 221-4450 |
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